{"id":3030,"date":"2014-04-11T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2014-04-11T12:01:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T17:01:27","slug":"coleman-ready-to-weather-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/04\/11\/coleman-ready-to-weather-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Coleman ready to weather retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John<\/a>

<\/a> John Coleman<\/p><\/div>\n

John Coleman, the father of The Weather Channel<\/a> and the court jester of \u201chappy talk\u201d news in Chicago, is calling it quits after more than 60 years in the weather business.<\/p>\n

Coleman, 79, spent the last 20 years as chief meteorologist at KUSI-TV<\/a> in San Diego. He surprised his colleagues by announcing his retirement Thursday while he was out of town attending a tropical weather conference in South Padre Island, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time to wind down the professional working part of my life and make the most of my private time in the years I have left,\u201d he wrote in a farewell letter.<\/p>\n

\"Coleman<\/a>

John Coleman at WLS<\/p><\/div>\n

Coleman was a household name in Chicago from 1968 to 1979 when his outrageous on-air antics \u00a0at WLS-Channel 7\u00a0\u2014 such as standing on his head or spritzing seltzer at news anchors Fahey Flynn and Joel Daly \u2014 came to epitomize the ABC-owned station\u2019s\u00a0\u201chappy talk\u201d era.\u00a0\u201cJohn Coleman was a clown, a showman. But he was also brilliant,\u201d Daly wrote of him in his recent memoir.<\/a><\/p>\n

He went on to become national weatherman for ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d in 1977 and head The Weather Channel, the 24-hour cable weather service he founded in 1982.<\/p>\n

In 1984, he returned to Chicago and spent six years at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. \u201cChicago was where I had my happiest, most successful years,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cBesides, I spent a lot of time in Wrigley Field and I want to be here when the Cubs take the pennant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas-born Coleman began his broadcasting career in 1953 at WCIA-TV in Champaign, while attending the University of Illinois. After graduation, he worked for stations in Peoria, Omaha and Mlwaukee before landing at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 here in 1967. He joined ABC 7 the following year.<\/p>\n

In recent years he\u2019s been an outspoken skeptic of global warming, calling it \"the greatest scam in history\" and declaring it \"a threat to our economy and our civilization.\"<\/p>\n

Here is the full text of the letter Coleman wrote Thursday:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you and goodbye.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nothing is forever. The universe, the galaxy, the solar system, the sun, Earth... every species fades away in time. We individual people are very small and very temporary parts of the big picture.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now is the time to wind down the professional working part of my life and make the most of my private time in the years I have left.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to my fellow team members, you have been very kind and patient with me and helped me along when the going got tough.<\/em><\/p>\n

I'm grateful to you all. I wish you all every success and happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most of all, thank you to the San Diego viewers who have been kind enough to watch me and support my efforts through thick and thin. I owe everything to you!<\/em><\/p>\n

And now, goodbye!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Coleman, the father of The Weather Channel and the court jester of \u201chappy talk\u201d news in Chicago, is calling it quits after more than 60 years in the weather business. Coleman, 79, spent the last 20 years as chief meteorologist at KUSI-TV in San Diego. He surprised his colleagues by announcing his retirement Thursday... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3036,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}